Savage Spirit and Soul
by BlackFalcon002
Summary: The third part of the Wolf or Fang trilogy. You finally get to know the entire scheme and what happened after I left off. Who's dead, who's not. Rated for some serious violence and language. Still random pairings, ain't gonna spoil that...
1. Chapter 1

HAVE A HAPPILY MERRY CHRISMAHANAKWANZAKAH!!!! Or, if you're like me, just merry Christmas, but we have to be nice, here. Anyways, happy holidays—no school/work/both, wopah!—and I hope you're all well.

This is a teaser, because I'm mean, to tell you that you will all be getting a fabulous Christmas present tomorrow—namely, the newest story installment, and the last story installment, of the Fang series, or the Wolf series, whatever you wanna call it.

Actually, it may not be all that fabulous, but I like to keep my mind open.

The new story: Savage Soul and Spirit

Newest/first chapter…..due tomorrow, unless my family drags me away, but I promise by the day after that! WOOOPAHHH! Feels good to be doing this again…

See y'all tomorrow! Tell me what you think of the title, I'm still not completely sold on it, but I like it I a weird way….kind of fitting, these new chapters may get kinda bloody.

I love all of my readers! I'll try and list them all, but there's a lot, so it may take a while…'til then!

Gauffen haust

Love, Chris, aka BlackFalcon002


	2. Chapter 2

A.N. Sorry it took this long. I have had this chapter done for a long time, but I was held back by a lack of a title. And I lied. I'm putting this thing up tonight. I won't have time tomorrow, guarantee.

PS: MERRY KNICKERMAS!!!

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"See anything?" Cid barked, shading his eyes with his hand as he peered up at Yuffie, perched on top of the airship and watching the forest closely.

"Nope," she yelled down. "It's pretty quiet."

"Damn," he muttered under his breath, stalking back inside. "You'd think they would be back by now."

"It's a big forest," Tifa reasoned.

"Yeah, that's crawlin' with things that wanna kill them."

Tifa winced, but didn't answer. Leon, not taking his eyes off of the sword he was cleaning, said "They'll be back," in a low voice.

"Yeah. They might not be _whole, _or even _alive, _but they'll be back," Cid said sarcastically. Both Cloud and Leon rolled their eyes, while Tifa just looked like she was going to be sick. Roxas just sat there, not moving, doing nothing but staring at the floor blankly.

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"You have to be kidding me, Zexion."

"Why would I be?"

"It's suicide!"

Wandering around here when we could be found at any moment is suicide as well."

Demyx shuddered. "This has to be the stupidest thing I've ever done."

"I wouldn't bet on that."

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"Oh. Whoa…" Sora muttered, surveying the blood-spattered scene before them. "It looks like a frickin' massacre."

"I think more than two people have to die before it can be called a 'massacre,'" Riku said lightly, already moving to Axel's side, checking him over carefully. "And definitely more than one."

Riku inspected the pyro's prone form, and found it highly interesting that the redhead had somehow managed to acquire clothing that was undeniably, though ripped and shredded, one of the Organization's uniforms.

"Now where do you think he got this?" he asked Sora flatly, and Sora managed to tear his eyes away from Xigbar's eviscerated corpse to look.

"What? The coat?"

"Yeah."

The brunette pondered over it for a while. "No clue. Maybe he took it?"

"From who?"

Sora hesitated, then shrugged. "I don't know."

They both regarded the unconscious redhead carefully, doubts about him beginning to assault both of their minds.

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Someone's coming!"

At Yuffie's call, all of them looked up simultaneously. Roxas stood up swiftly, but another call from the kunoichi had everyone joining him.

"It's not them!"

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Zexion and Demyx pressed on forward, though by this time Demyx had to nearly carry his partner. The wound passing through the thin body had befun to bleed again, and blood loss had begun to take effect. The slate-haired lycan's breath was harsh and ragged, blue eyes slowly clouding over. Twice already, they'd had to stop their journey across the golden sand so that Demyx could heal the wound as best as he could and try to stop the bleeding for at least a little while.

The ship was obvious, just sitting on the edge of the beach like a beached whale made of steel and glass, so painfully obvious that one had to wonder just why no one had found it yet.

Zexion staggered, his head lolling forward, and Demyx nearly fell as the weight on him suddenly doubled.

"Hey, are you okay? Zexion!"

"I'm _fine," _the tactician snapped, forcing his head up again. "I just…got lightheaded for a second.

"All right," Demyx said, carefully and riddled with doubt. "But if you need to stop—"

He halted suddenly, his eyes crossing to focus on the silver swordpoint not two inches from the bridge of his nose.

"You might want to stop and take a break right now," Yuffie said, her shuriken poised to attack.

Zexion smiled, even though Cloud's sword was pressing into his throat. "Quite a welcome party."

"And we still need to find our guests of honor," Tifa said coldly.

"W-we didn't come to fight!" Demyx squeaked, shying away from Leon's petrifying gaze. "Really!"

At that, Cid, Cloud, Yuffie, and Zexion rolled their eyes in unison.

"And why the hell should we trust you?" the blonde pilot growled, his spear pressing into the small of Demyx's back.

"You shouldn't."

"Zexion!"

"What? If you were in their position, would you trust us?"

Demyx recoiled, offended. "Well—"

"On second thought, rare as they may be for me, don't answer that. You trust implicitly, just like you trusted Sephiroth."

At the mention of the name, the Tsuragi pressed into the pale skin hard enough to draw small beads of blood. "What the hell is that supposed to be?"

"He tried to have us killed," Zexion said with a shrug, his eyes beginning to flicker in and out of focus. "I was—am—hurt too badly, and Demyx is useless."

"Would you _stop—"_

"So he was just going to kill you?" Yuffie asked incredulously.

Cloud growled softly under his breath. "Yeah. Sounds like him."

"He also killed Xigbar. Not…himself, obviously, but he…had it done."

"Why?"

"Because," Zexion said, his voice beginning to falter as his breathing became more and more labored. "He's planning an…attack…soon…" His knees gave out, and he sank to the ground and into unconsciousness simultaneously. Cloud had to yank the sword back to avoid slicing his throat.

"Zexion!" Demyx cried, crouching by the fallen lycan and attempting to roll him over.

Cloud and Leon's eyes met, and they nodded simultaneously. The blonde picked Zexion up, though not all that gently, and set off for the airship with Demyx scurrying along behind, his worry overcoming his terror. They were flanked by Cid and Tifa, as Yuffie bounded on ahead to reestablish her vigilant watch from the top of the ship.

Roxas was outraged when they returned.

"What the _fuck _are those two doing here?" he snarled.

"They're deserters. We think," Tifa said, trying to console him gently. "And that one said something about an attack that's coming very soon. We need whatever information they can give us."

"Are you _joking? _They can'tgive us _anything,_ they're just going to lie to save their own skins."

"We won't lie," Demyx said, looking up from where he was attending to the unconscious tactician. "But we can tell you who has been."

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A.N. Hey, sorry this took so long. I've been busy as hell and…well, yeah. Also, sorry for it being so short. It took a while, but it's still puny…I suck! *wails* Anyhoo, love y'all!

~Chris


	3. Chapter 3

Guys, seriously, I cannot tell you how sorry I am for being gone so long. I totally understand if you're pissed. But I am still writing this, and I have not dropped it, I swear.

On a good note, I got a DeviantArt account (Larutanrepus, you should check it out. Or not, whatev).

On a bad note, I'm more or less under house arrest. I didn't do anything illegal, promise….

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Riku carried Axel's lanky body through the forest, ignoring the blood soaking his own clothes, while Sora kept guard over the other two, his nerves so tightly stretched he thought he'd snap from the lack of action, if nothing else.

"We're almost there, Sora," his partner called, making him jump. "You don't have to be quite so tense."

The brunette nodded, taking a deep breath. He'd faced Heartless and Nobodies…but wandering around in a forest with a bunch of werewolves running around was something out of a bad horror movie, and he saw what happened to the people in _those _flicks.

"So," he said, trying to distract himself. "What are we going to tell everyone?"

"About what?"

"Well, about…finding Axel like that. Dumped along with an ex-Thirteen member, with one of their cloaks on."

Riku hesitated. To be honest, he really had no idea what to tell everyone else about how or where they'd found him. Hopefully, they wouldn't get asked too much.

Not that he'd have a problem with—

'Stop that,' he thought to himself, closing his eyes. 'You're not allowed to think like that.' He shook his head slightly in a vain effort to clear it.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "I guess we'll just answer whatever questions they have. I don't think lying would be the right approach."

Sora shook his head, too, though it was for a different reason. "Yeah…besides, Cloud and Leon would know if we were lying anyways."

"True."

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Demyx yelped in pain as Roxas slammed him into the wall, teeth bared.

"Don't you even _think _about saying something like that again!" he snapped, and the sitar player shrank visibly, looking like he'd rather run and take his chances in the forest rather than face a kid who was half a foot shorter than him.

Tifa pulled Roxas away, but her normally soft eyes were no less sharp than the blonde's.

"You expect us to believe your words over his?" she asked, her voice deceptively quiet.

"Y-yes…well, no…I-I…." Demyx stammered, very much wishing by this point that he hadn't opened his idiot mouth like this. He tried to control himself, taking a deep breath.

"C-can I go and heal Zexy—Zexion? Please? He's better at talking than me, and I don't really want to be—"

"No," Roxas growled, making Demyx flinch. "Because he'll just try and play stupid mind games with us, while you're stupid enough to give us a straight answer."

"Axel's a traitor to you!" Demyx blurted, his words coming out in a rush. "He's been spying on you fro Sephiroth, telling him how ready you are and what your plans are and stuff…I mean, how do you think they all found you so fast?"

Neither Roxas nor Tifa had an answer, and neither of them even looked like they were going to speak, so Demyx just kept on babbling, finding himself completely unable to stop.

"He's been leaking information the entire time. The last time was this morning, but Sephiroth got mad and nearly killed him for blowing his cover. He was also partly here to make a rift between everyone. He wanted to make you so unsure or so depressed or so in _love _that you couldn't see what was happening right under your noses, either…and that's why Sephiroth said he should go and—"

"Shut up," the blonde snarled, and Demyx grabbed that opportunity with relief, clamping his mouth shut. Still, Roxas kept going. "Just…shut up, it's not true!" He reiterated, almost stubbornly. "Axel couldn't…"

"Roxas," Tifa said gently, trying to make him stop.

"He _wouldn't—"_

"But he _is!" _Demyx said, "and he's going to continue if you don't—"

"No!"

"_Yes!" _Demyx snapped back, beginning to lose his own temper.

Tifa reclaimed control of the entire situation. "Both of you, calm down right now."

Roxas turned, stalking away from the group in disgust. They all watched him go, and when they couldn't see him anymore, they all turned on Demyx, who shrank away as though they were all running at him with drawn weapons.

"C-Can I go see Zexion now?" he stammered.

Again, Leon and Cloud shared a long look, until the blonde nodded almost imperceptibly. Leon turned to the hapless sitar player. "Yeah, go on. Try anything, and we'll kill you."

Demyx nodded. "Fair enough," he blurted with a slight shrug, and scuttled into the next room. A long silence followed his departure, and no one really wanted to break that unbelievably heavy silence.

Finally, Leon said quietly, "I guess we have something to talk about."

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Riku, by this point, was getting fed up with the prickling sensation that was assaulting the back of his neck.

'Shit, either attack us or go the hell away,' he thought irritably. Saying it out loud required having a death wish, but it was still pissing him off. And it wasn't helping that Sora was noticeably jumping and flinching, whirling about at the slightest noise, making the silverhair even more tense than he already was. Not only that, but Axel was no lightweight. Despite his bony frame, the redhead had plenty of muscle that weight a lot more than it looked.

Sora turned quickly, again making Riku tense up, only to relax just a tiny bit as the brunette turned back around slowly.

"Hey," the older one said quietly, his teeth grinding together. "Can you _please _stop doing that?"

"But Riku, I think we're being—"

"We are."

Now, Sora was looking about ready to jump out of his skin. _"What?" _he hissed. "Are you _serious?"_

"Shh! Keep it down just a little, idiot."

The brunette looked abashed, scuttling closer. "How can you tell?"

"I…I just can,ight? And they're close, too, so don't talk too much. I'm pretty sure that they can hear us. Then again, it wouldn't really matter. They've been here the whole time."

"The who—Really?"

"Yeah."

Sora thought about it for a few seconds, then smirked.

"What?" Riku asked nervously. He _hated _it when Sora had something to be all smug about. That was _his _job.

"I _knew _that something was bothering you. I _knew _it."

The silver-haired teen sighed. "Yeah, yeah…"

They continued walking for a few more minutes, and now the tension had been broken some, despite the fact that someone was tailing them.

Sora finally broke the silence. "Is it just me, or is it getting lighter out?"

It wasn't just him, in fact. They were finally reaching the edge of the trees, and sunlight, what there was of it, had begun to stream through the branches, a relief from the gloom of the deep forest.

"Thank God," Riku muttered, hefting Axel in his arms.

"About freakin' _time," _Sora said at the same time, and they grinned at each other for the first time since they had set out, despite the fact that they had to give the bad information to the rest of the crew who were still waiting for them.

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Larxene perched in the branches, her hard sapphire eyes narrowed in both concentration and utter hate at the three figures, only two of them walking, as they made their way out of the dense forest.

_God, _she hated these…people. Granted, she hated everyone that was on 'her side' too, but she couldn't stand watching people actually _caring _about each other. _Helping _each other. Disgust welled up in her as she watched them go. She wanted to kill them so much. But of course she couldn't, otherwise they'd be dead by now.

But her orders had been to observe.

So she had.

But when all of this was done, she was getting the hell out of here. She didn't care how scary Sephiroth was.

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Sora had been expecting some kind of joyful reunion between Axel and Roxas, with concern from the others and mass hysterics from his Nobody over the redhead's condition. Something along those lines. What he had not been expecting was a solemn council of grim-faced fighters, with Roxas being nowhere in sight.

"Well," Riku said, still holding Axel in his now-bloody arms. "No sunny faces in here, huh?"

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A.N. There. First chapter in a very long time (which I'm still sorry about, but at least I didn't drop it altogether, da?)

Anyways, read and review if you want. If not…well, yeah. Sure. Okay.

Ha, I don't mind, actually.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Sorry for the wait! DX

I still love each and every one of my readers, and thanks to Mary-sama (anonymous reader) for helping me get back on my writing feet with her awesome reviews!

~Chris


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